Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Congratulations to my cousin Andreas and Izabela on their new twin sons, Janek Stanislaw and Dawid Rolf, born on February 22, 2009. Unfortunately we won't be able to meet them soon since they live in Germany, but hopefully Andreas will start a blog so we can keep up with them as they grow (of course I don't expect it until the boys get a little older and into a routine!)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

LP Dad had a 3 day weekend so we packed up the car and headed up to visit some friends in Massachusetts with a stop to visit family in Rhode Island. We had a great weekend and are still trying to get caught up on lack of sleep now.

Friday afternoon we headed to Rhode Island to have dinner with Uncle Joe and Uncle Allen and to see their house. LP made friends with Daisy, their little dog, who loved LP for all the cookies she fed her. LP also discovered Uncle Allen's harp and serenaded us with beautiful music. LP Dad and I finally got a chance to see the house, it is beautiful and I cannot wait to see it in the summer when everything is green and the fall when the apple orchard is full. We had a great dinner at a local pub/restaurant before putting an exhausted LP in the car to head to Massachusetts for bedtime.

We didn't get to J's house until after he had gone to bed, but she was happy to see Auntie Jenn and Uncle Sean. Once we got her to bed, we had a great night catching up and playing dominos. LP was up early the next morning, listening for any sign that J was awake. We headed off to a local indoor playground where the kids ran themselves (and us) ragged. Later that afternoon they did some outdoor exploring with their daddies and on Sunday we headed to a model train exhibit.

LP did not want to leave. She actually screamed and cried for the first 45 minutes of our ride home, she wanted to go back to J's. Despite the age difference they are great friends. They have a great time playing with toys or just chasing each other around the room. As LP kept reminding her daddy, he's not Baby J anymore, he's just J now because he isn't a baby anymore.

Auntie Jenn had her good camera most of the weekend, so I didn't take many pictures. Hopefully she will upload hers soon and I will post some of LP and J together.

I am ready for summer. I am ready to play outside most of the day without spending 20 minutes bundling up. I am ready for the sun to still be up at bedtime. I am ready for the flowers to bloom, the grass and trees to turn green again, and to hear the birds through our open windows.

I am also ready to pull out the summer clothes. Especially this new dress I bought for LP this weekend. When the dads took the kids to give us time to ourselves this weekend, Jenn and I took a trip to the new Natick Collection to check it out. I couldn't believe the changes that have been made since I moved, including the addition of a Hanna Andersson store. I adore Hanna Andersson clothes, but cannot normally justify the expense. Jenn had a gift that needed to be returned and didn't see anything for J that she wanted, so she let me put it towards something for LP. Between that and the sale, I just couldn't resist this dress with the bright cheerful, summery colors.

Dance class is a big hit. She spends the week in between classes showing off dance steps and ballet positions. One of her preschool friends may be joining her class as well, they were at the last class to register and LP was so excited to show everything off to her.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

LP's unicorn from Nannie and Grandpa came in a big box. The other morning I pulled the big box into the living room, handed LP her markers, and asked her what the box was.

She started off by coloring a river and an ocean inside the box while I drew her a steering wheel. She added her baby's carseat and drove off for a while, driving over me a couple of times in the process. The car turned into a boat when she came to the river and needed to cross over. Then it became an airplane so she could go to see Nana and PopPop.

When Uncle Dave stopped by, the box became an ice cream stand that quickly grew tires and became an ice cream truck. It's not a very well stocked ice cream truck though, it only gave out chocolate ice cream for a while. Apparently all the vanilla ice cream belongs to the driver and it never carries peppermint. I was eventually able to get a cherry popsicle after adding one to the menu.

In the evening, the box was turned on its side and the inside bottom became a work of art from one end to the other. Who needs toys when 1 cardboard box can provide an entire days worth of imagination and play.

We had a nice, relaxing Valentine's Day together as a family this year, LP, her daddy, Uncle Dave, and me. This year Valentine's Day fell on one of LP Dad's days off, so he actually got to spend the entire day with us.

I started off the morning by sort of sleeping in, although apparently LP and her dad were too excited to give me my gift to wait until I woke up. About 8 am they joined me in bed and gave me a beautiful red raincoat and red polka dotted umbrella.

We spent the morning playing relaxing while LP opened her gift from us, then got onto the webcam with Grandpa and Nannie to open the BIG box that had been sitting in our dining room all week. They sent LP her very own unicorn to ride around the house. This one isn't blue with a white tail, but he does make galloping and whinnying sounds and has a blue ribbon wrapped around him. She said he was just what she really, really wanted, named him ApplePie (although later that was changed to Fuzzy) and spent the morning riding him on adventures.

In the afternoon we decided to treat ourselves to ice cream instead of lunch. Uncle Dave came with us and we all enjoyed sundaes and ice cream cones. LP stuck to her usual vanilla ice cream on a sugar cone, while the rest of us ate sundaes and were too full later to want dinner.

Before LP went to bed that night, we hopped back on the webcam to talk to Nana and PopPop and LP opened another gift that she really, really wanted. She was so excited to get a beautiful dream catcher to hang above her bed. She woke up the next morning and told me about all the bad dreams that came that night, but her dream catcher kept them all away.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Happy birthday to my little cousin Christy, who isn't so little anymore. I still can't believe that the little girl who would con me into making fluff-only sandwiches with marshmallows on the side has become such a beautiful adult.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

LP had her first official dance class today. She actually went last week to try it out, and spent all week doing the portion of the jazz dance that she remembered. She definitely wanted to go back, so we signed her up today.

I love the fact that her class is so small, last week she was 1 of 4, today she was 1 of 3. She is also the youngest in the class and really looks up to the big girls (all of 5 years old) and takes behavior cues from them. She is much more involved than she was in her last session of Little Gym, I think this is going to be great for her.

The class actually started in September and they have been working on the recital routines since then, so she has a lot of catching up to do. But she already knows about 1/3 of the jazz routine, so she may actually get to perform in the recital in June if they can reorder costumes in time.

It always amazes me how environment changes perception. Once she was in her tights and leotard with her hair in a bun, I wanted to cry. She looked so much older, I felt like I was looking at a 7 year old. But when I slipped in at the end of class to catch the last couple of minutes and saw her standing in line between the other girls she looked like such a baby again. I'm trying to keep that image in my head, she is growing up on me too fast.

I am not a store shopper; I don't like crowds of people during sales, trying things on in fitting rooms, waiting in lines to check out, the dry air in malls, etc. I much prefer to shop online, when I can enjoy some tea in my pajamas while I get what I need. I did most of my Christmas shopping this way and stocked up on some things for LP to wear next year during the clearance sales.

During my holiday shopping I discovered Ebates. It is free to register for the site, and they have thousands of online stores listed through them. All you have to do is go to your favorite store through the Ebate link, and you receive a percentage of your purchase price back. I also got additional deals on some of my purchases by using a discount coupon only offered to Ebate members.

It is easy to sign up and you can choose to receive your money back as a check or through PayPal.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

We attempted to go sledding at the great hill again the other day, but the hill was actually closed because they had snow machines on it. So we stopped at the great little coffee shop we found for a little lunch before heading home again. The last time LP watched a couple of older girls playing chess at one of the tables and wanted to play too. This time the chess table was open, so she and I hopped up to play while waiting for our sandwiches. Unfortunately chess is one game I never learned, so I had to play along with her version. LP's version involves stealing my queen and my horses having to get her horses help to rescue her. Luckily Uncle Dave has offered to teach all three of us the real game, I'm sure she'll be beating all of us at it soon.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A very happy birthday to LP's Auntie La. I have a hard time believing my baby sister is 28 years old now.

LP and her Auntie La have a very special relationship. LP knows that whenever her Auntie La is around the fun won't stop. Auntie La is always willing to get down on the ground, roll around, get dirty, give horsey rides, be a jungle gym; whatever LP can dream up. And LP is the only person who can not only wake Auntie La up at 7 am without getting her head snapped off, she can get her to actually jump right up and be ready to play.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Yesterday we took advantage of the warm weather to head outside for some winter fun. We picked up a couple of sleds, two tubes, and Uncle Dave and headed off to the county park for some sledding fun. This was LP's first time really sledding, until now it's just been me or her daddy pulling her in circles around the backyard.

We got to the park and started to get bundled up. First thing we realized was we left LP's snow pants at home. Luckily it was warm enough that she never even missed them. We grabbed the sleds and I grabbed my camera and off we went. LP insisted on carrying her own little sled.

As we turned the corner to the hill, she stopped to take it all in. Off to the left was the tubing, you could rent a tube and they had lifts to pull you up the hill. LP is still to small for that, so we headed straight down to the sledding hill.

She didn't waste any time at all, hopping on the sled and almost taking off by herself before daddy could get on behind her. Big smiles and she was ready to go.

The walk back up the hill didn't deter her, she practically ran back up to get another turn. It didn't matter that it was a long, fairly steep hill.

As soon as she got to the top, she told us who was going down with her next. She did a good job spreading the trips out between us, I don't think any of us would have been able to make the walk back up as many times as she did.

She especially liked her trips with Uncle Dave because they would usually end up backwards on the tube and she would giggle for the entire trip.

Did I mention it was a really a long walk?

Her legs finally started getting tired of all the walking and she started getting rides back up the hill.

On our way home we stopped at a great little coffee shop to warm up with some hot chocolate and a chocolate chip cookie. LP enjoyed the cookie and the whipped cream in my hot chocolate. Then she spent some time watching the fish and playing with the little baby who was fascinated by her.

If LP were given the choice of only one thing to eat for the rest of her life, the answer would be easy, fruit. Having a to make a choice between the fruits might be a little more difficult, it would probably come down to a tie between apples and blueberries.

Last week I decided to make a cold, dreary winter morning a little more colorful with a rainbow for breakfast. Since then we have also had a couple of clowns, and another rainbow. That seems to be the extent of my fruit creativity, any suggestions for some more food art?

Monday, February 2, 2009

LP is forward-facing in her carseats now. We made it 3 years, 4 months, and 3 weeks rear-facing.

Her second-to-last rf'ing trip

She has taken the occasional ff'ing trip in other people's cars and has been ff'ing in Lilypad Dad's car for a month since we got a new seat. She has been hovering around the weight limit for rear-facing in her Boulevard for a couple of months and after a growth spurt over the last couple of weeks, she outgrew her Boulevard rear-facing by height. Yesterday I took advantage of the warmer weather to turn her seat around. I wasn't sure it would even come out of the car, it was installed that way almost 3 years ago and has not been removed once.

First ff'ing trip

Today we took our first trip, to the grocery store. While she seemed excited about it at first, by the time we were headed home she was asking me to turn her seat back around again. I think she was actually more comfortable rf'ing when her feet had someplace to rest! It is strange to look in the car and see the seat that way, it doesn't even look like the same seat anymore. And she looks so much older now when I look in the rearview mirror and see her sitting up so straight and tall facing me.